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Getting to know: England U20s scrum-half Ollie Allan
By Liam Heagney
It’s been quite the adventure in South Africa for England, the reigning Six Nations champions emerging from a series of adverse in-game situations to reach this Friday’s World Rugby U20 Championship final versus France.
Ollie Allan wasn’t available to head coach Mark Mapletoft during the European spring. Instead, he was hamstrung and watched the title-clinching victory over the French in Pau from his university digs in Loughborough.
With that pesky leg ailment since healed, Allan has returned to the England squad and been a key component in what has been achieved so far in the Cape Town winter.
Only the scrum-half and skipper Finn Carnduff, his Leicester clubmate, have started all four games against Argentina, Fiji, South Africa and Ireland, a run of selection vindicated by the snazzy fashion he ran in his first-half try against the Irish last Sunday at the DHL Stadium.
Preparing for an age-grade World Cup final is very different compared to what Allan was doing at this exact time a year ago. London Irish had just folded and he was scratching around to see what alternative might materialise. It eventually turned out to be Tigers.
Ahead of the World Cup final, he took a post-lunchtime break from his England preparations to tackle the RugbyPass Q&A, a quickfire 36-question, five-section session where his answers included Ben Youngs, Patrick O’Grady and Bawo:
THE BASICS
Born: February 4, 2004;
Joined England age-grade: First game was at Millfield U18s against Italy;
Club: Leicester;
Height: 6ft;
Weight: 89kg;
Position: Scrum-half;
Boots: Adidas RS15 (Nike Tiempo in recent games);
Gumshield: I’ve a retainer one;
Headgear: No;
School: St John's in Marlborough.
RATE YOURSELF (out of 100)
Pace: 92, I back myself;
Passing: 90;
Tackling: 82.
THE PAST
My favourite England player of all time is… I would say Ben Youngs is definitely up there;
Favourite try I have ever scored is… Probably against DMP for Rams when I was on loan last year. It was halfway, a little snipe and then gassed it to the line;
A rugby memory that makes me smile is… Playing for Hungerford, my local grassroots team seniors. Getting a run out there was quite fun a couple of years ago;
The moment I realised I could make it is… I’d say when I transitioned to scrum-half. That was at London Irish. My coach Patrick O’Grady transitioned me to scrum-half. I sort of started getting more trust from the coaches and felt I was progressing more quickly;
One piece of advice I would give to my younger self is… Trust the process;
My best subject in school was… God, this is bad; PE. I used to do history. I wasn’t very good but I enjoyed it;
The first player who made me fall in love with rugby is… That’s a good question. I don’t really know. I’d say probably watching (Manu) Tuilagi;
Growing up, my position was… I was 10, 15 at Irish before moving to scrum-half. At my Hungerford club I started at 10, then went to centre, back to 10 and then to nine;
The coach who has most impacted my game is… My dad and I would say Patrick O’Grady as well.
THE PRESENT
My best attributes on the field are… My kicking, speed of pass, physicality;
One thing I’m doing to improve my education is… I’m at Loughborough, sports science;
My favourite current England player is… Ben Earl;
My favourite YouTuber is… Beta Squad;
My hardest working teammate is… Finn (Carnduff), the captain;
My most skilful teammate is… I’d say Ben Redshaw is probably up there;
My favourite training drill is… 15-v-15;
My favourite music artist is… This changes every week. I do a lot of Bawo, quite a low key artist.
THE FUTURE
A player who could go all the way is… Asher (Opoku-Fordjour);
If I could play with anyone, I would like to play with… Anybody? I guess Dan Carter. It would be nice to be paired with him;
I will be happy with my career if I… Continue to make my family proud, if my future kids see me as a role model, someone to look up to;
One thing I want to add to my game is… My sort of, what’s the word, attacking threat around the breakdown;
If I could play in any other country, I would play in… I’d love to play in France;
One person I want to meet is… Anyone in the world? I haven’t really thought about that. Chris Hemsworth;
One trophy I would love to win is… The World Cup.
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Latest Comments
Warren, if you think you should stay on coaching Wales, you are beyond deluded. If you love Wales & Welsh rugby as much as you say you do (& I'm sure you probably do) you should resign immediately so this once proud & passionate rugby nation can rebuild without you. How many of your players will make the British & Irish Lions squad.?
It's time to walk the plank.!
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
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